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Definition of: hyperthreading(1) A high-performance computing architecture that simulates some degree of overlap in executing two or more independent sets of instructions. See Hyper-Threading.(2) (Hyper-Threading) A feature of certain Intel chips that makes one physical CPU appear as two logical CPUs. It uses additional registers to overlap two instruction streams in order to achieve an approximate 30% gain in performance. Multithreaded applications take advantage of the Hyper-Threaded hardware as they would on any dual-processor system; however, the performance gain cannot equal that of true dual-processor CPUs or a CPU with multiple cores.

Hyper-Threading Vs. Standard Modes

Applications must be multithreaded in order to take advantage of Hyper-Threading whether in single-core or dual-core machines.